Day: May 15, 2017

Today is Police Officers Memorial Day and the beginning of Police Week, which is commemorated May 14-20.

President Trump announced:

During Peace Officers Memorial Day and Police Week, we honor the men and women of law enforcement who have been killed or disabled in the course of serving our communities. Police officers are the thin blue line whose sacrifices protect and serve us every day, and we pledge to support them as they risk their lives to safeguard ours…

Our liberties depend on the rule of law, and that means supporting the incredible men and women of law enforcement…

In humble appreciation of our hard-working law enforcement officers, Melania and I will light the White House in blue on May 15. I call upon all Americans to observe Peace Officers Memorial Day and Police Week with appropriate ceremonies and activities. I also call on the Governors of the States and Territories and officials of other areas subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, to direct that the flag be flown at half-staff on Peace Officers Memorial Day. I further encourage all Americans to display the flag at half-staff from their homes and businesses on that day. WhiteHouse

Mejia illegally re-entered the US after being deported in 2001 and Rodrigo Nunez re-entered after being deported in 2001 and 2002.

Mejia and a coworker, Rodrigo Nuñez from Hayward — both undocumented immigrants from Jalisco, Mexico who have been in the United States for more than a decade — were detained on the base after a military official discovered they did not have valid social security numbers during a routine identification screening and reported them to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

CE officials have placed both men in expedited deportation proceedings without a court hearing — known formally as “reinstatement” — because they each have old removal orders issued more than a decade ago after border agents caught them attempting to illegally cross the border. Neither of them has criminal records, according to their attorney.

Their plight has drawn sympathy and support from friends, neighbors and immigrant rights activists who say the men are being swept up in an illegal immigration crackdown that was supposed to focus on felons, not people whose only offense was entering the country illegally.

“The first thing that came to my mind was why me?” Mejia said in Spanish during a phone interview with this news organization from the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center in Elk Grove, where he is being held.

“I’ve been here for 17 years and my record is excellent. I’ve never done anything to anyone. My bills are paid on time, I have a clean record, we’ve never asked the government for help.”

A spokeswoman for the air force base confirmed the incident in a prepared statement, saying, “As part of normal protocol, Security Forces personnel entered the individuals’ information into the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System, which identified them as undocumented immigrants. Security Forces then telephoned Immigration Customs Enforcement, who confirmed the status of the individuals and responded to take custody.”

In a prepared statement, an ICE spokesman said the men were detained by deportation officers assigned to the agency’s Fugitive Operations team and “will remain in ICE custody pending court proceedings and it will be up to a judge with the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review to determine whether they will be subject to removal from the U.S.” MercuryNews

Video: Undocumented Workers Detained Before Work At Travis Air Force Base

“Equally interesting, however, is the fact that in recent years – since 2009 – ‘No religion’ has stopped growing as a share of the population. It’s by no means in decline, of course, but we’re no longer seeing year-on-year increases”, stated Professor Stephen Bullivant, Director of the Benedict XVI Centre and author of the report.

According to ‘The “No Religion” Population of Britain’ report by Stephen Bullivant, professor of theology and the sociology of religion at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, non-religious people, known as ‘nones’, account for 48.6 percent of Britain’s population.

Although there has been an overall trend towards secularization in Britain, the figures also show record numbers of people from non-Christian faiths, such as Islam and Hinduism.

The number of British people identifying as Christian dropped from 55 percent to 43 percent between 1983 and 2015. By contrast, non-Christian believers such as Muslims and Hindus quadrupled.

“The rise of the non-religious is arguably the story of British religious history over the past half-century or so,” Bullivant said.

“Looking at the long-term pattern, the non-religious share of the population has shown strong growth over our whole period,” the report states.

“The year 2009 was the first in which nones outnumbered all Christians put together.

“With the single exception of 2011, this pattern has held ever after. In two years, 2009 and 2013, nones formed a majority of the adult British population.”

However, the research, carried out with data from the annual British Social Attitudes survey and the biennial European Social Survey, also highlights how the falling number of worshipers with the Church of England seems to have stabilized.

Bullivant said patriotism might be driving this trend, as Christianity and Englishness tend to be conflated. RT

Non-religious and pray

A quarter of people who say they have no religion admit to praying, a report has found.

Nearly one in four people in Britain who claim to be non-religious say that prayer forms a part of their life, while a similar proportion admit to attending religious services.

The study by the Benedict XVI Centre for Religion at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, found that nearly half the British population now identifies as non-religious – however, nearly three fifths of these still profess some level of personal religiousness.

Around four per cent of people who claim to be non-religious even admit to praying daily, with over a quarter of non-religious over-75s praying at least monthly. CatholicHerald

Decline and Recovering

Prof Bullivant, a professor of theology and the sociology of religion at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, told The Observer newspaper: “We’ve seen a vast shedding of nominal Christianity, and perhaps it’s now down to its hardcore.”

Prof Bullivant said that the Church was recovering after losing a lot of believers after the publication of Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion in 2006.

He told The Telegraph that the release of Dawkins’ book had stopped a lot of latent Anglicans from describing themselves as Christian.

Prof Bullivant said: “That book was really aimed at those people who said they were Anglican but didn’t really believe in God. So a lot of them stopped ticking Anglican on the forms and started to tick atheist instead.”

He also suggests a link between patriotism and Christianity, stating “People see Christianity as an expression of Englishness”. Premier

The Bible used to form the basis for morality. Today that is no longer true, right and wrong are relative to the situation with a constant shifting as morality is not based on anything permanent.

Most older Americans say right and wrong never change. Younger Americans—not so much.

A new study from Nashville-based LifeWay Research found a significant generation gap in how Americans view morality.

More than 6 in 10 of those older than 45 say right and wrong do not change. For those 35 and younger, fewer than 4 in 10 make that claim.

That’s a huge shift between generations, said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research. Older Americans grew up at time when ideas about morality were more stable, he says. That’s no longer true for younger Americans.

“We are shifting very fast from a world where right and wrong didn’t change to a world where right and wrong are relative,” McConnell said. “We are not all on the same page when it comes to morality. And we haven’t reckoned with what that means.” LifeWayResearch

Right and Wrong

As part of the study, LifeWay Research also asked Americans how they decide between right and wrong on a personal level.

Half (52 percent) say right and wrong never change. A third (32 percent) say whether or not someone gets hurt plays a role in determining if something is right or wrong.

Americans also consider whether something is legal (24 percent) or whether the benefits outweigh the costs (20 percent) when thinking about morality. Fewer worry about what the majority of people think (8 percent) or whether an institution gets hurt (10 percent). LifeWayResearch